LODI – With some of the best up-and-coming swimmers in the region pushing themselves to season-best times, continuing on into the Sac-Joaquin Section Finals is no easy task for area boys swimmers.
Both Ripon and East Union served themselves well at Tokay High for the boys trials. With only a dozen area swimmers continuing on, those few who did advance put together solid meets.
East Union’s Elijah Salas was victorious in his heat of the 200 IM, shaving nearly five seconds off his season’s best time. Salas was also instrumental in two Lancer relay events, and entered the meet with one of the top-25 times in the 100 back.
“I was pretty pleased with it,” Salas said of his 200 IM. “I took off some time on my PR so that was a great improvement. I came into the race and just tried to put any negative thoughts away and just give it my all.”
Salas would also shave a second off his 100 back time, finishing in 57.54.
The Indians got a huge meet from Corey Winter, who will enter Saturday’s final as the No. 1 seeded swimmer in the 200 IM for the frosh-soph division. He was also outstanding in the 100 fly, where the Ripon standout will enter as the No. 2 seed in the finals.
“He’s a sophomore and this is still a big deal for a frosh-soph swimmer,” Ripon head coach Eric Zador said. “He’s coming into the finals as one of the top swimmers in two events.”
Ripon teammate Nathaniel Gagnon also landed himself a berth into the meet’s final day, tying in the 16th place spot of the 100 back. A “playoff” during a break in action Saturday will decide which swimmer will land the event’s final spot.
“They are going to have both swimmers race and whoever wins will get to compete in (consolations),” Zador said.
As a unit, East Union probably put together the day’s most impressive feat, closing with blistering performances in the 200 and 400 free relays. The Lancer quartet of Elijah Salas, Chris Wells, David Hudson and Lucas Romero broke the former East Union mark set some nine seasons ago.
The team swam a 1:36.93 taking off two seconds from their season-best time and beating the old mark by six-tenths of a second.
“It was an incredible race,” Lancer head coach Kara Andrews said. “The team had only swum this race twice during the regular season. Each swimmer stepped up and swam a personal best 50 free split.
“Breaking the school record was a team goal going into today. And it was great to see their hard work in the pool pay off.”
The Lancers 400 free relay also improved on their season-best time, finishing with the meet’s 21st best 400 relay time.
Finals and consolation finals will begin at 10 a.m. at Tokay High.
